St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-16
RULED BY WEALTH.
A Screed Upon Millionaire United
States Senator'S. q

States Senators.
To the Editor of the Globe.
According to an estimate by Frank
q. Carpenter in a recent letter to the
New York World, we have sixteen
millionaires in the United States senate.
In other words. over 20 per cent of the
members of our national senate are
worth each a s1,OOO,0OO and upwards.
This is about five or six more Million
aires than we had in our entire pOpula-.
ton before the breaking out of the,
civil war. When we consider that in
this country wealth is the basis of
ariStOcracy and of social position, we
see the significance of these figures,
The United States senate is our Amer
lean ''house of lords,' and, like its En-
glish namesake, ought to, and sooner or
later will. be abolished as useless relic,
of deSpOtiSm. Every selfish instinct by
which the average man or class is gov
erned leads or inclines men i'll power to
favor their own kind whenever queS
ton arises involving conflicting inter-
eStS. Here we have SO-called repub-
lie, resting upon the consent of the gov
erned," wherein the highest body of
law makers represents i'll proper
ton to its numbers hundred
fold more wealth and monopoly
than any other body or class of men in
the Union. Remember, we have but
seyenty-eight United States senators,
representing in the aggregate not less
than twice that number of millions. or
an average of 2,OGO, 900 each. No other
government on the face of the earth has
ever been equal to such a record. We
know how some of these senators Sc
cured their seats, and are convinced
that others of them owe their position
and their office to their money. But
aside from all this we knOw-unleSs in
their cases all human tendency to self
serving is reverSed-that such band
Of men cannot Understandings and i'm
partially legiSlate for the great mass of
laboring people, for they necessarily
belong, soul and body and pocket, to an
opposite and privileged class. If this
enormous wealth of the highest legisla--
tive and iaw-making body in the nation
is the result of accident it certainly is
the most remarkable case of the kind in
all history. 1t taxes the credulity of
any intelligent person to doubt that in
nearly every instance where money
has not been the power that has helped
secure the Office the latter has been in
Strumental in obtaining the wealth, and
this is no less deplOrable. We see the
inevitable outcome Ill the gigantic and
aggressive mOnOpOlieS that are combin-
ing in all departments of trade to crush
out all that healthy and varied cOmpe-
tition on which general business pros
perity depends. When [ remember
that this condition of things has been
reached under twenty-four years of Re-
publican rule it almost leads a lifelong
Republican like mySelf-whO voted for
every Republican presidential candi-
date from Fremont down to Garfield
doubt whether. after all, we are in re-
ality very greatly indebted to the party
that saved the Union and freed the
slave" in order to increase the number
of white slaves, who are in bondage to
a worse and more heartless system of
oppression than the negro ever dreamed
of. In view of all this it is almost ANUS
ing as well as sad to see an ex-senator,
who is also d millionaire, looking out
from between the rubS and sQueeZes of
a neutrality-suspicious. training
school in PariS-and bidding for the.
presidency by promising to lift the tax
from tobacco while retaining it on food
and clothing. Possibly Mr.. Blaine may
yet realize that Lincoln was right when
he said; You can fool all the people
part of the time and part of the people
all the time, but you can't fool all the
people all the time
JAMES G. CLARK.